2010-04-07

Character Assignation

I am astonished to find that in the twenty-first century it is still possible for somebody to complain - in public, mind you, and without being greeted with gales of derisive laughter - about a remark that astrology is rubbish. Professor Brian Cox makes a wholly unremarkable observation in one of the episodes of his BBC series "Wonders of the Solar System". He says "But despite the fact that astrology is a load of rubbish, Jupiter can in fact, have a profound influence on our planet. And it’s through a force … gravity."
A fact which has been pretty much known since Newton. It's a passing comment on a purely physical effect which astrologers don't even claim provenance over. But it is transformed by them into a triumphant 'see, we were right!' It gets turned into a call to arms - an exhortation to ring the BBC and complain about the Prof's 'assassination attempt on astrology'.
Unbelievable.